We are excited to welcome Bracken Brown, Biologist-Naturalist at Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, to join us and discuss the Black Vulture. Hawk Mountain is a leader on New World vulture research and has actively monitored and tracked both black and turkey vultures throughout their native ranges. In a time when many species are seeing widespread negative population trends black vultures are a species that has adopted and capitalized on an anthropogenic driven landscape and is seeing population and range expansion. This talk will share the variety of methods hawk mountain has employed to follow black vultures through their daily lives and how this data informs future trends within the population and best research techniques. The talk will also discuss the heavy overlap in human and vulture communities and potential causes and solutions to maintain a happy medium with these feathered highly intelligent, inquisitive, neighbors.”

Bracken Brown | grew up in the shadow of Hawk Mountain, and since his childhood has been engaged in the Sanctuary’s local trapping and monitoring projects, including the American Kestrel Nest Box Program, new world vulture research, and seasonal counts and surveys. In this position, Brown continues his efforts full time and assists in natural history monitoring and long-term research, conducting migration counts and surveys, and maintaining avian and GIS databases. Additionally, he will help with volunteer recruitment and public outreach.